It always remained a mystery why people are so eager to denounce somebody for being paid too much while doing nothing to improve their own living conditions. For them, it is this overpaid person who steals their rightful possessions. How come somebody can be so rich while being honest? No, he must be robbing me, otherwise where could he get all this money?
CEOs are among the most hated people in this respect, which is constantly being supported by the policies of the world’s governments. But the categories in which both the majority of people and populist politicians reasons are based on wrong presumptions. They state that it is unfair for one person being paid so much, while other people are underpaid. They use ethical and even judicial terms. Yet this matter isn’t connected with ethics in any respect. It is solely and exclusively the domain of economics.
CEO, even a bad CEO, can be replaced only by another CEO. He or she is supposed to have specific education and/or talent to do this kind of job. He must be ready to spend enormous amounts of time and energy in order to do this job right; he cannot expect to have a predetermined share of quality time with his family and so on. Understand me correctly – I don’t say that it is hard job which makes the one who does it much more miserable than a starving Chinese coal miner. I say that it is more difficult job and a Chinese coal miner cannot replace him.
So, it is useless to discuss whether CEOs are paid too much, at least if you are reasonable. Everyone is paid what people agree to pay them. If companies are ready to pay CEOs for their job – who has right to change their decisions?